Have you recently launched a business? Perhaps you’ve started a personal blog and are looking to grow your online presence with an effective social media strategy? Implementing a social media strategy can help you determine the messages you will communicate to your audience, the channels that will be used and the audience you aim to target.

Hiring a social media strategist can be a great way to tailor your communications using limited or extensive social media resources. Most successful business have impactful inbound marketing strategies that holistically integrate social media and SEO techniques. These integrated strategies can be one of the best ways to generate growth for your business or blog.

Why Hire A Social Media Strategist?

Think of your social media strategist as your brand ambassador. A social media strategist will be responsible for managing your brand’s reputation and relationships with your customers. These experts organise your day-to-day social media activities and will help you create an effective strategy for growth.

A social media strategist can help you achieve a number of key business goals and address your social media needs. Depending on these needs, a social media strategist can help with key responsibilities such as:

What To Look For

If you’re after a social media strategist for your business or blog, it’s important to know what it is that you are looking for. Are you looking for someone that specialises in small business growth? Perhaps you prefer an expert that has worked within a specific industry or blog? Knowing exactly what and who you are after can be a great start towards finding the perfect social media strategist to suit your business or personal needs. The ideal candidate should have:

Strong writing, editing and storytelling skills

Clear communication skills

Experience in customer service, content marketing or sales

Deliberate goal setting and planning abilities

In-depth understanding of social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, LinkedIn) and when best to use them

An understanding of how to optimise social media posts for SEO

Background in content management

Visual and graphic design understanding

Ability to create, curate and organise published content (written, graphics and video)

Ability to monitor key metrics and track growth

Marketing degree would be preferred but not required

Maintains an understanding of SEO principles such as keyword research tools including Ahrefs and Google Analytics

Screening your candidates for these skills can be an effective way to find the ideal social media strategist with the right expertise and experience.

Questions To Ask Your Social Media Strategist

Interviewing your candidates is important if you’re looking to invest in a long term social media strategist that is suited for your business or blog. The aim of this interview is to understand the motivations, expertise, experience and understanding of the candidates. Some questions you could ask include:

Which social media channels would you use to promote my business/blog? Why would you choose these over alternative channels?

What blogs or social media do you follow? Which of these would recommend that we read and why?

How would you use social media as a tool for customer service?

How would you measure social return on investment (ROI)?

When would you use Youtube to promote our brand and increase engagement?

How would you increase traffic to our website?

What are the benefits of having a LinkedIn company page?

Describe the most effective social media campaign that you have managed or participated in.

What would you say are your top three strengths?

Have you experienced any challenges on a social media platform? If so, explain how you overcame this challenge.

Asking a mix of technical and behavioural questions will give you more insight into how specialised and experienced these candidates are.

Where To Look

Not sure where to start? Hiring a social media strategist can significantly improve your business's growth, so it’s important that you choose a platform that will provide you with the world's best talent.

Luckily, Freelancer.com is the world's largest freelancing, outsourcing and crowdsourcing marketplace by number of users and projects. We connect over 22 million employers and freelancers globally from over 247 countries, regions and territories across any technical, professional or creative field.

No matter how small or large the job, fixed or hourly, we can help you specify a schedule, budget and milestone to suit your project needs. Posting a project is easy - simply specify your job requirements with a basic description of your social media objectives and post your project.

Post your project: Posting a project is simple and absolutely free. Invite our freelancers to submit bids, or browse relevant freelancers and make an offer. You'll receive bids and proposals to your project within seconds!

Choose the perfect freelancer: Browse freelancer profiles, chat in real-time, compare proposals and select the best one. Once you award your project to your selected freelancer, work on your project will commence.

Pay when you are satisfied: Pay when you are 100% satisfied using our Milestone Payment system - release payments according to a schedule of goals you set, or pay on completion. You decide, you are in control.

So what are you waiting for? Simplypost a project on Freelancer and you'll receive bids from our talented experts in just seconds!